Stories from Thessaloniki and Environs

Some of these stories are true. Some are mythological. I think they’re all interesting, and they all help understand a lot about Thessaloniki and the nearby places I visited over the last few days.

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki is the second biggest city in Greece, after Athens. It is the capital of Macedonia. It is not in Thessaly, which is a separate geographic and administrative area of Greece.

The founding of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki was founded in 315 BCE by Cassander. Cassander was the son of Antipater, a Macedonian general who fought under Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander III (aka Alexander the Great).

Cassander studied with Aristotle alongside Alexander. When Philip was assassinated in 336 BCE, 20-year-old Alexander became ruler of Macedon. By the age of 30, Alexander had created one of the largest empires in the history of the world, stretching from Greece to India. He was undefeated in battle. He planned to establish his empire’s capital in the ancient city of Babylon, but he died there in 323 BCE, at the age of 33. (It is unclear whether he was murdered by poisoning, possibly plotted by Antipater, or fell ill from typhoid or malaria or something else, exacerbated by grief over the death of his friend Hephaestion.

I’ll skip over some details. After Alexander died, there was a power struggle. In order to advance his ambitions, he married Alexander’s sister, Thessalonike. She was named after one of Philip’s victories over Thessaly. (“Nike” is the Greek word for “victory.”) He named the city he founded after her. Later, he arranged the assassinations of Philip III (half-brother of Alexander III), Heracles of Macedon (illegitimate son of Alexander III), Alexander IV and his mother, Roxana, who was pregnant at the time of Alexander III’s death. With all obstacles eliminated, Cassander became King of Macedon.

Then what happened

The Kingdom of Macedonia lasted for another 150 years, through a series of power struggles and assassinations, many of which were intra-family. Sons killed fathers and mothers, brothers killed brothers, and in the end the Romans conquered them all (whoever was left).

In the 4th and 5th centuries, walls were built, surrounding the city.

After the Fall of Rome in the 5th century, the eastern half of the empire survived and continued to exist, as the Byzantine Empire, until 1453, when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople. Thessaloniki was the second largest and wealthiest city of the Byzantine Empire.

During five centuries of Turkish rule, ending in 1912, Thessaloniki was an important seaport and cosmopolis. Churches, mosques, and synagogues stood side by side, and Thessaloniki was the only majority Jewish city in all of Europe.

In 1912 Thessaloniki passed to the Kingdom of Greece. The Great Fire of 1917 destroyed two-thirds of the city and led many residents who had lost their homes, including a large percentage of the Jewish population, to emigrate, largely to the United States.

After the Greco-Turkish War of 1922, the two countries participated in a population exchange. Christians from Turkey came to Greece and Muslims in Greece went to Turkey. Then the Holocaust led to the liquidation of most of the Jewish population, and today, Thessaloniki is no longer a diverse international city.

Thessaloniki Today

Because of the 1917 fire, little remains from the past. And, in fact, the growth of the city in the 19th century led city leaders to demolish most of the walls. A few sections remain in the upper town, and the White Tower, a symbol of the city at the waterfront, still stands because it would have been too expensive to demolish.

So Thessaloniki is a mostly modern city. City leaders originally hired a French architect to redesign the city, and he came up with a grand Parisian-style plan. But because of lack of funds, only Aristotle Square, in the center of the city, reflects that grandeur.

Thessaloniki waterfront. The White Tower was originally part of the medieval walls.

Most of Thessaloniki looks a lot like this; not very pretty.

In Kapani Market you can buy just about anything (meat, fish, cheese, pastries, gyros, souvlaki, halvah, and even olives).

Statue of Alexander the Great, unveiled in 1974, on the waterfront

Remaining section of the walls of Thessaloniki

Hagios Demetrios, 7th-century church dedicated to Saint Demetrius, the city’s patron saint. After the fire in 1917, it took over 30 years to restore it.

Here are all my photos from Thessaloniki.

Mount Olympus

It’s up for debate whether the physical Mount Olympus was the actual dwelling place of the gods. Some say the Greek gods lived in an imaginary Olympus in the sky. Others say they lived on the peak of the actual mountain. Of course I assume they were imaginary, so they didn’t actually live in either realm, but the stories of the Greek gods are so interesting and imaginative that it’s more fun to believe them than not. (Have you ever read the Bible?)

The Olympian Gods

There are said to be twelve Olympian gods:

Zeus: King of the gods and ruler of Mount Olympus; god of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order and justice.
Poseidon: God of the seas, water, storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and horses
Hera: Queen of the gods and the goddess of marriage, women, childbirth and family
Demeter: Goddess of the harvest, fertility, agriculture, nature and the seasons
Aphrodite: Goddess of love, pleasure, passion, procreation, fertility, beauty and desire
Athena: Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare
Artemis: Goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, virginity, the Moon, archery, childbirth, protection and plague
Apollo: God of Sun, light, prophecy, philosophy, archery, truth, inspiration, poetry, music, arts, manly beauty, medicine, healing, and plague
Ares: God of war, violence, bloodshed and manly virtues
Hephaestus: Master blacksmith and craftsman of the gods; god of the forge, craftsmanship, invention, fire and volcanoes
Hermes: Messenger of the gods; god of travel, commerce, communication, borders, eloquence, diplomacy, thieves, and games
Hestia: Goddess of the hearth, fire and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family
Dionysus: God of wine, the grapevine, fertility, festivity, ecstasy, madness and resurrection

If you count, you’ll see that there are thirteen, not twelve, gods in this list. Hestia was originally one of the twelve Olympians, but she ceded her throne to Dionysus.

Other gods and demigods came to reside on Mount Olympus. For example, Heracles, after his apotheosis, was welcomed to the pantheon. (If I remember correctly, there was a painting somewhere in Rome of Hercules, his Roman counterpart, being thus welcomed.) But on our visit to Mount Olympus, we didn’t see any gods or demigods. Perhaps that’s because the summit of the mountain was hidden by clouds.

Mount Olympus hike

Our hike at the base of the mountain was short and sweet nonetheless.

The peak of Mount Olympus would be in the space between the two other peaks if the clouds weren’t there.

We did finally get a glimpse of the top of the mountain as we were arriving back in Thessaloniki.

Here are all my photos from Mount Olympus.

Aigai

The Royal Tombs

Antigonus Gonatus, born around 320 BCE, was the son of Cassander’s sister, Phila. He became King of Macedon in 277 BCE. (How that happened is another story for another time.)

As king, Antigonus was concerned with protecting the tombs of Philip, Alexander IV, and others at Aigai, the ancient capital of Macedon where they were buried. (Alexander the Great was buried in Memphis and later moved to Alexandria, and it has not been found in modern times.)

So Antigonus had a tumulus, or burial mound, built on top of the tombs to hide them. One of the tombs had already been plundered, but the remainder were preserved under 36 feet of earth for over 2000 years.

The Discovery

Fast forward to the twentieth century. A Greek archaeologist, Manolis Andronikos, spent years digging at the tumulus looking for the tombs, but he kept digging, down from the center of the mound, and finding nothing.

Antigonus, it turns out, was clever. To prevent future plunderers from finding the tombs, they were not located at the center of the tumulus, but off to the side. Finally, in 1977, Andronikus found what he was looking for.

The Museum

The Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai (at what is now the town of Vergina) opened in 1997 to display the tombs and the treasures Andronikus found. The tumulus is still there, as it was 2300 years ago. Two tunnels lead to the museum, where the tombs are exactly as they were found. The treasures that were inside the tombs were removed by lifting out the keystones at the top of the tombs. (Opening the doors would have cause the tombs to collapse.) It’s all on display in the museum.

I don’t know how to put into words the profound experience of seeing these tombs and treasures. All I can do is share some photos.

Philip’s Tomb

The tomb of Philip II of Macedon. Keep in mind that this is not restored and has not been moved from its original location. It is exactly as it was found in 1977, which is exactly as it was buried in the 3rd century BCE. In addition to Philip, the remains of his Tracian wife Meda, who would have committed suicide to join her husband in death, was found in the antechamber of the tomb.

Philip was cremated. His bones were then placed in this box along with the gold wreath.

This gold myrtle wreath was discovered in the antechamber of the tomb.

This suit of armor was found in the tomb. All is as it was found, except the skirt, which would have been leather and would not have survived.

A ceremonial shield also found in the tomb. The shield was made of wood, leather, and cloth, all of which are deteriorated. The decoration is made of ivory and gold, with tiny tiles of transparent molten glass. At the center is a depiction of a Greek warrior, probably Achilles, killing an Amazon.

The Persephone Tomb

Another tomb nearby was plundered. All that remained were the wall paintings. Since it is not possible to enter the tomb, the wall paintings were reproduced in the museum. The tomb is named for this painting on the wall.

This detail from the wall painting in the tomb shows the abduction of Persephone by Hades. It is believed that this tomb would have been the burial location of one of Philip’s other wives. (He had seven.)

The Prince’s Tomb

Cassander assassinated Alexander IV and his mother, Roxana, 25 years after the death of Philip. This is believed to be Alexander’s tomb.

This fragment from a frieze made of ivory with gold strips shows Dionysus and his wife Ariadne dancing to the flute music of Pan.

I didn’t have a chance to capture all the photos I would have liked to, so there are just a few more in my album.

Visiting this museum was the highlight of the trip so far. I still have a lump in my throat remembering the feeling of seeing these items and so much more. For sure this will take its place in my list of my favorite “other” museums.